Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition

Joseph Joubert

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Name: The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II
Author: Joseph Joubert

Complete Notebooks · French with an independent English translation.

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The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume IIYEAR 1807 · Entry 5267

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Facing Pages · Branch 1486 of 4529

YEAR 1807 · Entry 5267

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 2971

Parny. Des blasphèmes miéleux et des ordures vernissées (—ou, — le blasphème découle de sa plume avec douceur, comme un miel empoisonné). Il a mis les vases sacrés dans les latrines et parfumé avec l’encens les ordures des mauvais lieux. Enfin, il a souillé le ciel, sali les temples et mis sur les autels de la porceleine et du musc. Il a le cœur et l’âme eunuques. Il ne se montre insinuant que parce qu’il est énervé. Son impuissance a quelque grâce. Enfin le puritas impuritatis de Juste Lipse est fait pour lui. Véritable Spadon.

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1807

p. 2972

Parny. Honeyed blasphemies and varnished filth (—or, — blasphemy flows sweetly from his pen, like poisoned honey). He has put the sacred vessels in the latrines and perfumed the filth of brothels with incense. Finally, he has defiled heaven, soiled the temples, and put porcelain and musk on the altars. His heart and soul are eunuchs. He appears insinuating only because he is enervated. His impotence has some grace. Finally, Justus Lipsius’s purity of impurity is made for him. A true eunuch.

T14.The repeated purity of impurity receives the same translation and source emphasis. The parenthetical alternative remains inside the paragraph. Enervated renders énervé as deprived of vigor, not irritated; insinuating conveys an ingratiating manner. Brothels renders mauvais lieux in its historical euphemistic sense. Eunuch translates both the bodily metaphor and the closing Spadon; the latter is not assigned as a personal name. These judgments remain Joubert’s. The Académie’s 1798 entries Énerver (I, p. 489), Insinuer (I, p. 734), and Lieu (II, pp. 27–28) support these senses of weakened vigor, winning favor, and mauvais lieux as houses of debauchery; Insinuer is the related verb, not a separately verified adjective entry.

T198.Miéleux retains single l and an acute over e. Porceleine retains ei. The parenthesis beginning with the alternative ou is closed after empoisonné; the last Véritable Spadon remains a nominal fragment. The left-edge le, est and the start of impuritatis are partly damaged and restored from surviving letters.

About This Reading Edition

Joubert’s notebooks return to the work of thinking and writing, the demands of friendship, and questions of faith, beauty and conduct. This edition pairs the French with a new English translation, preserving the order of the chosen source and the unfinished character of its fragments. Dates and source references allow readers to follow a thought through time or return to its printed context.

Historical Text and Translation

The French text follows André Beaunier’s 1938 edition of Les Carnets de Joseph Joubert, published by Gallimard from Joubert’s autograph manuscripts. Volume II continues the notebooks and includes seventy undated pieces. French and English are aligned paragraph by paragraph, retaining the source order, printed dates and page references so readers can return to the facsimile.

About Diotimos Editions

Diotimos Editions prepared this new English translation directly from the French, preserving Joubert’s distinctions, recurring images, ambiguities and unfinished thoughts. Translator’s notes clarify wording, references and uncertain readings: Essential keeps notes that help explain a passage, while All includes technical detail. Annotations from the 1938 source edition remain distinct from the new translator’s notes.

Rights

The linked facsimile records identify the French source as public domain in the United States. The new English translation and editorial notes are © 2026 Diotimos, with source annotations and new editorial contributions credited separately. This edition pairs the complete French notebooks with an independent English translation, preserving the distinction between Joubert’s text and its accompanying notes.